This is great news. I've tried it and it really works, at least kind of

It actually starts and the things that happen inside the working area seems to work as expected. Native controls like tree views and the like will currently not show up and fonts are looking weird but it is a great start.

If the new Linux works... how much horse power will one gain vs. using Windows 7 Ultimate? (If any.)

I see this question frequently when it comes to Linux ports. I don't think this is the point of why it is beneficial to have a native Linux reaper system.

I think first and foremost, the benefit for me would be to get this damn dual boot off my pc. You see I have reaper and plugs on my win partition and EVERYTHING else on my Linux partition.

The next reason would have to be for the reaper community.
Look at it this way, Most Linux users are smart cats. If they see reapers model of nag screen only they will pay. I did. Just imagine the additional tools brought on board by people writing extensions etc. That right there is huge.

Third I think Linux needs a real DAW. Sorry ardour and rose-garden absolutely don't cut it. I don't see them getting it done right for a long time.

I think it is worthwhile, and at the same time, should probably live in the pre-release section for a while.
The amount of newbie questioning would be overwhelming at best.

Reaper being a true cross platform daw would be golden imho.

I anticipate a lot of greed and frustration over this unfortunately(due to peoples concern over slowed win/mac dev time). And I hope cockos continues on the native Linux version path, even if it is at a snails pace.

There is zero advantage to running in Linux, in fact it is a PITA to get good performance because the audio hardware support we have under Win/Mac is near non existent on Linux.

True. Although it gets better all the time. changing from freebob to ffado made it much easier to use fire-wire cards for example.
Jackd is great but confusing as hell to learn.
I think things would be much better if devices displayed product names and not things like hd0.

More people use linux everyday.
Hardware manufacturers need a reason to write good drivers for another OS. Large user base is required.
It will happen at some point.

Pretty strange that this stayed under the radar for more than three weeks... anyway, a few developers (daveisadork, Jack Winter and myself, that is) have already started taking this further, we've already made some good progress. However, don't expect too much too soon, we're not able to work full-time on it and we need to get used to Justin's WinAPI emulation and GTK (which was chosen as UI toolkit) first. Roughly estimated, it will take about a year until the Linux port is in a usable state.

If you are a skilled developer with some serious experience in WinAPI and GTK programming, you're welcome to join us! You can find my git repo here:http://plug.404.mn/git/wdl.git

Pretty strange that this stayed under the radar for more than three weeks... anyway, a few developers (daveisadork, Jack Winter and myself, that is) have already started taking this further, we've already made some good progress. However, don't expect too much too soon, we're not able to work full-time on it and we need to get used to Justin's WinAPI emulation and GTK (which was chosen as UI toolkit) first. Roughly estimated, it will take about a year until the Linux port is in a usable state.

If you are a skilled developer with some serious experience in WinAPI and GTK programming, you're welcome to join us! You can find my git repo here:http://plug.404.mn/git/wdl.git

404NotFound: I have some knowledge of C++ and a basic grasp of GTK and I would like to help you if you think you need me, in any way even with just some extra testing.
I downloaded WDL from your git repo and I noticed that you 've done something with GTK3. But, although I managed to compile it successfully I get this error when I try to run reaper:

What does it matter if the operating system is "faceless corporate software" or not, really? If it enables you to run the software you want to use...? You should also hate Cockos for keeping Reaper closed source by that same line of reasoning!

404NotFound: I have some knowledge of C++ and a basic grasp of GTK and I would like to help you if you think you need me, in any way even with just some extra testing.
I downloaded WDL from your git repo and I noticed that you 've done something with GTK3. But, although I managed to compile it successfully I get this error when I try to run reaper:

SWELL API not found: SWELL_SetListViewFastClickMask

Any hints?

Oh, looks like they added that to the API recently. I'll look into that later.

What does it matter if the operating system is "faceless corporate software" or not, really? If it enables you to run the software you want to use...? You should also hate Cockos for keeping Reaper closed source by that same line of reasoning!

To clarify - I don't like the business practices of Apple and Microsoft. I like diversity in the marketplace - not monopolies. However - I use Apple because their stuff allows me to do what I need to do. I also support many small companies and contribute to some open source projects. Eventually, I'd prefer to be able to support only smaller companies and open source projects. So I always like to encourage (verbally, financially or by contribution) smaller companies with good customer engagement and fair pricing, open-source projects and companies that develop for Linux.

True. Although it gets better all the time. changing from freebob to ffado made it much easier to use fire-wire cards for example.
Jackd is great but confusing as hell to learn.
I think things would be much better if devices displayed product names and not things like hd0.

More people use linux everyday.
Hardware manufacturers need a reason to write good drivers for another OS. Large user base is required.
It will happen at some point.

I love Linux and use it regularly. This concept has been around for at least 10 years now and we are still waiting for it to get in the same zip code as win/mac audio.

Lets face it, the Linux types are interested in about everything but the audio. IF there was any interest in that aspect it would have been addressed long ago. Its just not going to happen.

Its not 1998 anymore. MS has gotten their act together. XP SP3 was stable as hell. Vista was rushed but MS did not force you to upgrade. They maintained XP support. Windows 7 has been kick ass. No one hated MS as much as me 10 years ago but the reality is that the huge stability advantages Linux had 10 years ago just aren't there anymore.